TEHRAN - Government spokesperson Ali Rabiei said on Monday that the United States has no right to prevent the International Monetary Fund (IMF) from giving loan to Iran.

“From the legal point of view, the United States is not in the position to obstruct the legal performance of institutions and international organizations,” he said in a press conference.

He added, “The United States must understand that the international institutions are not its property.”

The government spokesman also urged other states to the IMF to stop the U.S. inhuman actions.

Iran’s central bank wrote last month to the IMF to request the $5bn from its Rapid Financing Initiative, an emergency program that gives loans to countries facing with sudden shocks such as natural disasters.

It was Tehran’s first request for IMF loan since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

President Hassan Rouhani said on Thursday that the IMF must fulfil its duties unbiasedly.

“In this difficult situation, the International Monetary Fund must not be influenced by mischievous acts of the enemies of the Iranian people and fulfil its duties,” Rouhani said in a phone conversation with central banker Abdolnasser Hemmati.

Hemmati said Iran’s request was being presented to the IMF executive board, and that Tehran was intent to pursue the demand.

Hemmati wrote on his Instagram page on Thursday, “We expect the IMF to immediately respond to the request of Iran which itself is a founding member of the fund.”

In a tweet on March 26, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said, “Even the world's largest economy (the U.S.) needs others to help it fight the pandemic, yet refuses to halt its Economic Terrorism against Iran.”

Zarif said the Covid-19 is ravaging the world and sparing no nation.  

“Does the U.S. want a ‘forever pandemic’?” Zarif asked.

The chief diplomat said it is “moral imperative to stop observing the bully’s sanctions”.

‘We have to fight sanctions and coronavirus’

Rabiei also said that the Iranians must fight both the coronavirus and the sanctions.

“We will succeed in this path,” he noted.

NA/PA